Data discrepancies

Here are all the reasons why a different (usually lower) number of sessions/users is reported in the Recruiting Home:

Sessions are compared with clicks

These are different metrics measured by different systems - a click on a link is recorded as many times as any user clicks on it. A session is recorded as all interactions on a website within 30 minutes (default by GA or Matomo). This means that a user may click twice on an ad within a 30-minute period, without closing their browser. That will count as two clicks, but only one session (and naturally one user) in Google Analytics. There will always be more clicks than sessions.

Cookies

Given that we can only track users who accept the cookie banner, the reported numbers will always be lower than the actual numbers. This is because there will always be users who either deny the cookies or bounce (close the tab) before being tracked. Unfortunately, the reporting functionality in the CCM19 tool, which we use to set up cookies, is quite limited. It only provides an overview of how many users have set cookies across the domain, giving us a rough estimate of the share of users who accepted the cookies and were successfully tracked. Also, when it comes to paid ads, it is common for users to bounce before the page or cookie banner has even loaded. In such cases, a click is registered, but a session is not recorded.

The standard share of users that accept cookies is ~70-80% (based on an analysis we’ve done in May 2022), but every case is different so it’s better to check the data for the specific domain and time period.

UTM parameters

UTM parameters play a crucial role in URL posting, particularly for marketing campaigns. It is essential to always include UTM parameters, with a minimum of two: utm_source and utm_medium. While utm_campaign is optional, it is recommended if you want to compare different links. If UTM parameters are partially or completely absent, it is possible that some traffic will be categorized as "direct/none", especially for sessions from mobile applications such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or email apps. Additionally, if a link is published on a website, the traffic may be labeled as a "Webseiten" from that particular site. For instance, a display ad on Facebook would generate traffic labeled "facebook.com/referral".

Redirect

Ideally, there shouldn’t be any intermediary pages between the site with a campaign link and a JobShop. If there is a redirect, UTM parameters might be lost and a session will not be assigned with a correct channel. If the URL with parameters is too long it can be shortened using Bitly or similar tools.

Bot traffic

GA and Matomo filter out suspicious bot traffic, Google Ads does as well, but the methods could be different. Other marketing platforms might not have different filters or not have them at all.

One channel to multiple JobShops.

It’s only possible to see data for one selected JobShop in the Channel Dashboard, therefore, if the same channel (meaning the same UTM parameters) is used for links to several JobShop, the data should be combined across those JobShops.